Deputies: Woman steals from patient, turns self in

JENNA-LEY HARRISON
Staff Writer

A Cherryville health care worker, accused of stealing and pawning items from one of her Lincoln County patients at two area pawn shops earlier this month, recently turned herself into the Magistrate’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Laurie Ann Bowers, 33, of 2086 Highway 274, cared for the theft victim at a home on Startown Road in Lincolnton, according to an agency press release.
Bowers stole a mandolin, chainsaw and $400 in cash from the residence earlier this summer; the resident reported the missing items to sheriff’s detectives on Sept. 1, the release said.
Bowers pawned the items, which she admitted to stealing, at pawn shops in Lincolnton and Lenoir, the Sheriff’s Office said. Detectives said she told them she did not take the cash.
After the former health care employee turned herself into authorities on Friday, deputies charged her with one felony count each of larceny, possession of stolen goods and obtaining property by false pretenses and was placed in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center under a $9,000 secured bond, officers said. She has since been released.
The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an ongoing investigation into the incident.